The Role of the SCPHN School Nurse in raising awareness of female genital mutilation

Migration has resulted in specialist community public health nurses (SCPHN), specifically SCPHN school nurses, encountering female genital mutilation (FGM) more commonly in practice, requiring them to upskill to offer support and raise awareness (Robinson, 2011). A policy was critically analysed, and a literature review conducted, to identify evidence-based strategies to enable the SCPHNSN to effectively raise FGM awareness to school-aged pupils. The findings highlighted three themes – Education, cultural influence and community leader and FGM survivor engagement, which translated into practice as a SCPHNSN-led FGM education project (Diop and Askew, 2009, Adeniran et al. 2015, Galukande et al. 2015, Raible et al. 2017, Connelly et al. 2018, Johnson et al. 2018). A project such as this would enable the SCPHNSN to raise pupil awareness, increase knowledge of support services, achieving practice decline over time.